The 40-year-old Northwich boss, who was named Northern Premier League Division One South manager of the month just weeks later, got a 10-game ban. He plans to appeal against the decision.

It is not the first time Ashcroft, the former Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion striker, has been in trouble. He served a three-month ban for using foul or abusive language while manager of Kendal Town in 2010.

But it is the first time 30-year-old
Dingley, a UEFA ‘A’ licence coach with 10 years’ experience working in
men’s and women’s football, has encountered such ‘extreme’ levels of
sexist abuse. You would be shocked too if you knew what was allegedly
said; never mind that these deeply degrading offensive words were
uttered in a supposed place of work.

‘This was extreme and sustained,’ said Dingley, explaining why she decided to shake Ashcroft’s hand after the match and then report the incidents to the referee and the FA, ‘hounding them’ for four months until something was done. ‘You get some comments and there are things that frustrate me, but this was very severe.

‘As a woman in the men’s game, it’s still…not frowned upon, but it’s not the norm. A lot of people are very old-school and not that comfortable with change. It’s still an old boys’ club.

‘People appoint their mates and people they used to play with and therefore, as a woman, you are not really part of that.I would like to say it’s got better but I’m not sure it has; maybe overtly, but not covertly, behind closed doors.

‘Ten games is a fair punishment. I know some people were a bit shocked but they don’t really know what was said and how severe it was.’

Dingley is used to stewards asking for her ticket or mistaking her for the physio. She was the only female candidate on her coaching courses and passed after leading a session of 22 men.She laughs when it is suggested some of the blokes might have struggled had the roles been reversed.

‘I’m quite comfortable with male and female players,’ she says. ‘Players are just players. Sometimes you need to shout at female players to make them respond and some men need an arm round the shoulder.

‘I have worked in the Women’s Super League but I get more accolades from coaching at Gresley. People still don’t recognise the women’s game.

‘I could be manager of the women’s England team and it wouldn’t matter, but if I work in men’s non-League football I can’t be that bad.’

Abuse: Northwich Victoria manager Lee Ashcroft, pictured in action for Wigan during his playing days

WHAT THEY SAID...

The USA can keep their women’s 4x400m gold medals from the 2004 Athens Olympics despite one of their team, Crystal Cox, admitting taking drugs.

Cox ran in the heats but not the final and was stripped of her medal in 2012. Great Britain, however, will not be upgraded to bronze; a decision Scot Lee McConnell called ‘disgusting’. She’s right. It stinks.

The FA introduced measures last month that will see players found guilty of abusing an opponent banned for a minimum of five matches, with an automatic 10-match ban for a second offence.

It was introduced to help combat racism, but can be applied to other discrimination cases — including attacks against disability, sexuality and religion — too.

This should be viewed as a step forward but it still relies too heavily on self-policing. How sexist did Ashcroft need to be for Dingley to feel she should report it?

How explicitly racist must a gesture be for a black player to tell the referee?

Good for Dingley and her club for taking a stand, but it is still too often up to those in football to draw their own personal boundaries and decide when that line has been crossed.

...AND THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING THIS WEEK

Went to Wembley to watch the Championship Play-Off final. It was a dire game technically but I didn’t care: I don’t think you can beat this magnificent annual occasion for tension and atmosphere.

Going up: Crystal Palace beat Watford at Wembley on Monday to secure promotion to the Premier League

Read an article with England netball player Stacey Francis in which the writer suggested netball is a difficult game to follow because the athletes do not have names on their bibs. There are only seven players on each team and they wear big capital letters indicating where they can go on the court. Trust me, it’s not that complicated.

Got wound up by all the talk about the hot, humid conditions during the Lions’ match against the Barbarians on Saturday. Why not react and play to those conditions?

Humid: The Lions opened their 2013 tour with a 59-8 win over Barbarians in the sweltering heat of Hong Kong

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK

Reanne Evans, the nine-time world ladies’ snooker champion, beat Thailand’s Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 5-4 to qualify for the last 64 of the Wuxi Classic in China.

She fought back twice to achieve her first win in a full ranking event and plays world No 2 Neil Robertson. Cue lots of people admitting they did not realise women played snooker.